Morning journal and courier., 1887-02-18
INDIAN RIGHTS,

The New Haven Association's Annual
 -Dr. GoodselI PresIdes-Address by
 Herbert Welsh of h1Iadelphia-The e
 Annual Election.
 Rev. Dr. Goodsell presided at the annual meeting of the Indian Rights association held in Trinity rectory on Temple street last evening and at which about two hundred
 were present. Rev. Dr. Goodsell opened the
 meeting with prayer, after which he stated that as he did not know that he would re-
 main in the city another year he would re- sign, which he did, his resignation being ac- cepted, and the Rev. Dr. Newman Smyth of Center church was elected president in his
 stead. Professor Brewer was elected vice
 president, MT. H. W. Farnam secretary in
 the place of MT. DeBois, resigned, and Mr.
 Lloyd was re elected treasurer. The treas
 urer's report showed the income for the year
 to be $73 23 and the expenses $62, leaving a
 balance of $11.23 After the reading of this
 report Rev. Dr. Goodsell introduced Mr. Her
 bert Welsh of Philadelphia, one of the h.
 dian agents, who said: ''I intend this even
 ing simply to make a statement of our
 progress during the past year, and l think in looking back over our work we have great cause for encour- agement, although there are many trials and disappointments with which we have to put up. First let us consider the rights of the
  ton of those rights. For four years past we have been trying to get through Congress what is known as Dawes land and severalty bill for the poor i'll treated Indians. Three times this bill passed the Senate, but each
 time it was stopped in the House. This bill
 is to give the Indians the right to take up land in severalty and hold it for twenty five years and thus become citizens of the United States and governed by its laws. In the past two years the association have had passed law so that the Indians could be tried in the United States courts and punished for the crimes they committed towards each other Agent McGillicuddy, of Pine Ridge reservation, was the first to put the new law into execution; and by him an Indian was sentenced to term of years in prison for murdering one of his own tribe. .Now this is 8 great help to the Indians many of them want to live peacefully and they have now some law to keep them from the attacks of their wilder brothers. This severalty bill, however, passed the House this fall through the untiring efforts of Sen ator Dawes, and now many say what more do we want? This my friends is only beginning of the advance, as everything will depend on how this bill will be put into effect, and from its administration will either result in great good or greatest injury. We must first proceed to collect careful knowledge about all the different Indian tribes and their con- dition and what they need, and after arrang- ing it systematically present it to the public who are to carry on this work that the bill dictates. This will take many years of hard
 work and patience, but at last our hopes. l 1 trust, will be realized beyond our best expectations. Another bill we have
 now before Congress is what is | known as the Sioux reservation bill for the opening to the whites of a passage through this reservation in Dakota, and we trust this bill will yield the Indians a hand some sum for education and give the whites what they want-a passage for railroads through this vast tract of land. A third bill is the Mission Indian bill for the relief of the Mission Indians of southern California, and | this is perhaps the most needed bill of all, as these Indians are treated shamefully by
 the whites, being robbed by them of their land and left to live outcasts as best they can. The actual question of administration is to be looked at, and this, I am sorry to say, is very poor, the agents from the Indian
 bureau being mostly incompetent and lazy
 men, put there through political influence; and what we need is to get these men out
 and put competent ones in, and then we can
 make progress. This can be done only by
 civil service reform, and we have recently
 sent letter to the President asking for this
 reform and mentioning names of those who are incompetent and asking for their re- moval,"